A Money Coach in Canada

When I worked for your subsidiary, there was much, and worthy, soul-searching going on: Who were we and How would we show up in the marketplace?

If ever there was a time to stake your ground, surely it’s now!

It’s now, when a handful of your gutsy neighbours (who may even bank with you?) walked straight into the heart of your turf, the financial powerbrokers on Wall Street, and raised their 200 or so fists defying what financial institutions have become. And sparked a movement.

It’s now, when thousands - millions?? – of Spaniards (oh! those Spaniards!) spilled into the streets for 15O, indignant ones, speaking against the savage consequences of capitalist structures unchecked (uncheckable?) by political will (euphemistically speaking)

It’s now, when thousands of Oakland folks have tasted tear gas (including this woman in a wheelchair) for insisting that people come first:

and when a Pulitzer Prize winner PWND Kevin O’Leary, Canada’s own lame-ass apologist for the worst of capitalism:

and when young mid-riff baring, cardboard placard bearing girls are corralled into red netting and then peppersprayed

So. In light of corralled girls and teargassed wheel-chair bound women and articulate youth and the hashtag #occupy showing up here, there, everywhere, does Vancity have something to offer? Yes, this vid gives a glimpse of a better way. It’s inspiring.

But it’s not a manifesto, and if ever a ballsy manifesto (nothing pretty, please! and no slick marketing!) was needed from a financial institution, one whose DNA is still gritty and radical even if tamed over the years, it’s needed now. Is a credit union something more than a kinder, gentler bank? I’m listening. And I hope about 99% of Canadian citizens are too.

2. #OccupyWallStreet If you’re not keeping informed about what’s going down in the heart of the financial district, you probably should be. You won’t find much about it in mainstream media (any guesses why) but I’m pretty sure this is history in the making. While there is no one “key message” (which would be a contradiction in terms for the protesters), they do coalesce around these common themes:

citizens should be at the heart of public policy, not money

corporate money should not have nearly the influence it has

a call for society to re-order itself to close the gap between the rich and poor

This protester spoke eloquently to Fox News (and the interview was never aired):

Well for one thing, Wall Street is being occupied by kids and hoodlums and professors and average joes AND the founder of AdBusters (where I used to volunteer — don’t tase me bro!). The cause? Putting people at the centre of politics and policy instead of corporate interests. Psssst – you won’t hear much about this on mainstream media, but you can get live-action coverage here and here:

Meg Whitman, as in Made E-Bay What It Is Was Meg Whitman, yes that one, is now head of HP No offence gentleman but big WOOHOOOOO for a woman being at the top of a tech company.

Netflix pissed off its customer base (as in, 1,000,000 cancelled their subscriptions level of pissed off) more by their apology than their original offence. Funny side story – their new spinoff company, christened Qwikster, failed to account for the pot-smokin’, foul-mouthed, wanna-get-laid dude who has the Qwikster twitter handle. Poor guy woke up to find he had 12,000 followers instead of 69.